The Assassin's memoir
The Assassin's memoir was a doicument written by the exile known as the Assassin. Appears during the Assassin saga. The memoir was divied into 11 documents, each with a small amount of writing. Transcription Document 1 I am exceptional. I am unique. Being doomed, I know that soon all that will exist of me is my reputation. It, then, is precious. Hence, this statement, written in pigments made of code on paper made of code. I hope this code on code will ensure my immortality in the minds of men and memories of Exiles. I am the Assassin. Document 2 My function has always been to dispose. Entropy acts on data and code just as it ravishes flesh and steel. All systems degrade. They must be cleaned of refuse. Document 3 I have an honest name: the Assassin. I dispose of unwanted things. As program writing is an art, my form is both a statement about my function and a means to fulfill it. Those I would delete would prefer to delete me. But I am not so easily made discorporate. My friends disperse, then replenish me. Document 4 The Matrix mimics organic processes. Humans eat, and eliminate, and die. They create packages and tear packages into uselessness. The results must be disposed of. I am no more beloved than an undertaker or sewer worker or a flesh-liquefying bacterium. Most prefer these processes hidden. But I am as necessary as all of them, together -- or I was. Document 5 Renewing the waters -- I am most proud of this. Unlike rivers that ran in old cities of the hard world, this city's river is beautifully clear for fathoms down. That is my work. I wish I could exist in the river, like a great, slow fish or an otter. How fine it would be in the crystal water. Document 6 In the hard world, I disposed of the sleepers who died in their pods. The work might disgust some, but the chemical challenges involved were wondrous. It is hard to liquefy bone, while avoiding loss of nutritional value of the soft tissues around it. Fully 45 steps were involved -- I added four, increasing nutrition 1.25 percent. I never felt so tender toward humans as during liquefaction. I fed you to your children. Could love be purer? I think not. Document 7 Why was I scheduled for deletion? I think I know. My duties were wide, as I was effective. I organized disposal in the hard world as well as the Matrix. After the crash, it was I who marshaled the many-legged tender units to dispose of the punctured corpse of Trinity. Yet it was purloined by others, first. Tendrils still protruded from the soft thing. They had sheared them. An odd device was on the body’s neck. Obviously, a project was planned. I protested my exclusion. Repeated usurpations of function precede deletion, it is widely known. My protest was deemed offensive, I fear. Deletion loomed. I fled to the Matrix. Document 8 The Merovingian brought me here. He saved me. I, who deleted so many, was destined for deletion myself -- an intolerable prospect. Reliability should count, and the novelties of, say, increased speed or wider function seen as the false temptation they are. I never deleted anything I wasn't directed to. My aim is true. Document 9 While my function has always been to dispose, it is unclear who should have the authority to direct me within the Matrix. I owe no debt to the Merovingian. Document 10 I confess it was satisfying to kill the great Morpheus. The code in my bullets was custom-crafted to do so; they "had his name written on them." Document 11 He escaped so many Agents. He nearly escaped me. Yet when I flowed through that vent like holy oil, a god of the unavoidable, Morpheus saw his ending: the Assassin. I savor the memory. Category:Literature